Jack London Historic State Park to host exhibition with work from famous California artist
From April 20 to June 23, Jack London Park Partners will host a special art exhibition featuring work from renowned landscape painter, Tilden Daken.
The exhibition, “Tilden Daken: The Art of Adventure,” is currently on display at the Museum of Sonoma County, where it will remain until March 31 before being transported to the House of Happy Walls Museum within Jack London State Historic Park.
Tilden Daken (1876-1935) was a member of the California Impressionist movement, whose painters were known to set up shop outdoors in the hopes of better encapsulating the serene and ever-changing character of the land. Daken was alive to see the unspoiled nature of the nation’s 31st state, along with the rapid growth of San Francisco, Hollywood and other modern developments, all of which he documented in what historians estimate to be around 4,000 different canvasses.
“What I believe is most captivating about Tilden Daken are his stories,” said Daken’s granddaughter, Bonnie Portnoy, who has written a biography of Daken that is set to launch this April. “He was one of the most adventurous artists in the American West. He painted in every redwood grove and state park in California, and California’s national parks.
Daken, known as “the Painter of the Valley of the Moon,” spent six years living and working in Glen Ellen near his friend Jack London.
Portnoy says that tales from Daken’s relationship with London, along with other tales from Daken’s experience sailing to New Guinea and in the 1906 earthquake, will be naturally interspersed with his paintings throughout the exhibit.
“The paintings on display there, in addition to his early Sonoma County landscapes, also include scenes he painted in Mexico, Hawaii, Ensenada, and underwater the Pacific Ocean,” she said.
The show will be curated by Jennifer Bethke, collections specialist at the Museum of Sonoma County, and will be the first time the House of Happy Walls Museum in Jack London State Historic Park has hosted an exhibit like this since the building was renovated in 2018.
The park entry fee of $10 per vehicle will include admission into the museum and exhibit. The park is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, and the House of Happy Walls Museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit jacklondonpark.com/events/tilden-daken-exhibition-2024.
